The Ends Justify the Means: Philosophy Forums

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The Ends Justify the Means

LikeTupacOnlyCooler
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Posted 03/31/04 - 06:58 AM:	#1
If someone is in your way isn't it alright to murder them? They're going to die anyway, so one might as well take the initiative and kill them. What is convenient for the self is all that matters. This raises another question: Why is killing wrong if all people die eventually?

Tripp2K3
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Posted 03/31/04 - 07:03 AM:	#2
Isn't it alright to steal everything that someone has since they will lose possesion of it anyway? Isn't that the same thing? Just beceause someone will lose it doesn't mean that this justifies the taking of it.
"Joyous distrust is a sign of health. Everything absolute belongs to pathology." Frederich Nietzsche

Gassendi1
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Posted 03/31/04 - 07:07 AM:	#3
LikeTupacOnlyCooler wrote: If someone is in your way isn't it alright to murder them? They're going to die anyway, so one might as well take the initiative and kill them. What is convenient for the self is all that matters. This raises another question: Why is killing wrong if all people die eventually? _____________________________________________ And everyone might just as well commit suicide for much the same reason.

AKG
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Posted 04/01/04 - 03:08 AM:	#4
LikeTupacOnlyCooler wrote: If someone is in your way isn't it alright to murder them? They're going to die anyway, so one might as well take the initiative and kill them. What is convenient for the self is all that matters. This raises another question: Why is killing wrong if all people die eventually? Whether people die eventually or not is irrelevant. Killing people isn't "wrong," but there are two good reasons why one should not kill, 1) do you think you'd actually be happy if you killed someone? We're not that simple that we only want one thing, and we can kill everyone to get that thing, I'm sure most people would feel very bad if they had to kill someone. 2) Killing people who are in your way is often a very bad means to an end. There are people who may have been attached to that other person, and by killing him, you will get a bunch of new problems on your hand. In fact, in most societies, you have an entire government, looking out for people. If you kill someone, they will send police after you. Killing someone would probably create more problems than benefits. And why should the government and police care about that person? Because as a democracy, we vote that they should. We all want to be looked after and protected, so we all vote that there should be a group of people to protect and serve us.
"The only reason we die... is because we accept it as an inevitability." -- Stewie "To enslave nuance to dogma is folly." -- Lord Hillyer

IAreDumb
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Posted 04/02/04 - 07:17 PM:	#5
It also MATTERS! What you are doing is stealing the potentiality of a person's lifetime. This is why killing someone, and dying of natural causes is completely different.
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Stringjeans
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Posted 04/03/04 - 01:47 PM:	#6
...where's Kant when we need him? It is egocentric to believe that your ends are more important than the other individual's life. That kind of decision completely nullifies the presence of the other person's life. In short, this means you put your fleeting "goal" over someone's potentiality, when, since your life is just as meaningless and unimportant, you have no justification in doing so.
Every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Klaatu
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Posted 04/03/04 - 03:51 PM:	#7
AKG wrote: 1) do you think you'd actually be happy if you killed someone? Some people do. Does that make it right? 2) Killing people who are in your way is often a very bad means to an end. What if it is a good means to an end, and you will have no trouble?

RandomPrecision
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Posted 04/03/04 - 04:38 PM:	#8
Isn't there another thread on this?... ...right below this one... ...created about a month earlier?

AKG
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Posted 04/03/04 - 04:47 PM:	#9
Klaatu wrote: Some people do. Does that make it right? What if it is a good means to an end, and you will have no trouble? If you are a murderer, who finds benefit in murdering and can stomach it, and perhaps enjoy it, I want you locked a way for a very long time. However, if I am a murderer, and I enjoy it, then what the hell is there to stop me? Other people's feelings? Well, like I said, if I can for some reason stomach causing that kind of suffering, then what can stop me, other than perhaps the police, or something like that?
"The only reason we die... is because we accept it as an inevitability." -- Stewie "To enslave nuance to dogma is folly." -- Lord Hillyer

Klaatu
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Posted 04/03/04 - 05:27 PM:	#10
AKG wrote: If you are a murderer, who finds benefit in murdering and can stomach it, and perhaps enjoy it, I want you locked a way for a very long time. Because the murderering is wrong. It is evil, sick and twisted. A perversion of life. Who gives a damn if there's no God to define 'good' and 'evil'? Who says they're absolute standards? Why does it mean, if these things disappear, the the concepts are useless? Its just two sides of the same coin. Forget it. Isn't it enough that we can see it for ourselves? That what is generally destructive is bad, and what is constructive is generally good?

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